For this reflection, describe an activity that you have taught and reflect on how it went. Write your reflection in your Evernote notebook using the lesson reflection model introduced in class and located here to write your reflections.
Taxonomy of Reflection
Description
Remembering: What did I want, do, feel, and think? What did the student(s) want, do, feel, and think?
I remember wanting to institute some basic writing and grammar skills in the students while relating these skills to the overall learning target: understanding organelle functions. I felt concerned about how basic the lesson was for the age group and surprised there wasn’t a better overall grasp on basic sentence structure, but pleased they were understanding the scientific material. The students seemed to be having a good time writing and decorating their poems, but some were frustrated with learning how to use the thesaurus properly. To start, I wrote a cinquain on an organelle they had not covered, decorated it, and showed it to students. We went over some grammar points and the structure of the poem type, then I worked with smaller groups using thesauruses and brainstorming.
Understanding: What was important about it? For me? For the student(s)? For both of us?
The topic was important in terms of learning about the cell and how each little part contributes to it being able to function independently. The activity was important as it was presented in a way that was interesting to students and forced me to reconsider how I could teach this topic and integrate skills that would be useful in other areas. Collectively, the lesson was important as it was one of the first times I had to sit down and intentionally teach students something the majority didn’t know, while they were looking to me for guidance to better understand material.
Applying: Where can I use this again?
A lesson on organelle function will always happen within a unit on the cell, but I would use this particular activity again because of its adaptability. I think it could be expanded and advanced to a high-school level by changing the poem type or depth of description required. Similarly, I feel like if elementary school aged students were learning about cells and knew some basic knowledge a similar assignment could also be done at this level.
Analyzing: Do I see any patterns in what I did?
Questioning techniques used in a smaller group setting helped me to show students how to use critical thinking skills to complete things they do not know how to do. Often if a student was having trouble describing the “personality” of their target organelle I’d ask them to describe themselves in a few words. If an answer seemed to be leading somewhere, I’d show them how to search for their word (usually an adjective) in the thesaurus and have them consider if it was an appropriate use in regards to the assignment. If not, we would choose a new word together that was closer to the student’s original intent and discuss its use (ex: energetic is an adjective, it describes something. You described yourself as energetic because you like to do active things like sports. A mitochondria is energetic in that it’s equivalent to a cell’s personal power plant.)
Evaluating: What was effective and what was not effective?
Initially I did not know I would be so involved in teaching this activity and thought I was mostly to supervise one group, so one thing I would change for next time is to prepare for the fact that many students will not know how to use certain written materials or do not know things I had assumed they would know and be able to identify. Before going over the activity, I would choose one organelle and brainstorm descriptors with the class on the board, then see if they could differentiate between certain parts of speech; if this was problematic, I would spend time reviewing before introducing the assignment. There was also a limited number of resources (four thesauruses for upwards of 20 kids) so I would make sure to have more on hand.
Creating: What could I do next?
Before leaving my placement for the day, I asked my CT if she would be willing to hand out an activity I wrote up relating to my mini-lesson and use it as an opening activity once all her classes had finished their assignment. She agreed, so I designed a quiz that tested the students’ knowledge of organelle function in terms of real-life things (cytoplasm is a pond with things floating and swimming in it, chloroplasts are like a solar panel for a house) like we had been that day, as well as to the basic parts of language I talked about (What is an adjective? Give an appropriate example to describe the nucleus.) Currently, I am waiting to see the results; my cooperating teacher said they did not do well on a similar quiz she wrote for the unit, but I wonder if it was just on the scientific information or the rest of the lesson as well.
What did I want, do, feel, and think?
What did the student(s) want, do, feel, and think?
What was important about it?
For me? For the student(s)? For both of us?
Where can I use this again?
Do I see any patterns in what I did?
What was effective and what was not effective?
What could I do next?